THESIS

Leadership style:
A “female characteristics” inspired facilitative style or an androgynous style

Caroline Coulombe

5th of December, 2003

A thesis in the department of Psychology to be submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at New York University

Sponsor:
Elizabeth Howell

MA Director:
Barry Cohen
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………p. i
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………. p.ii
LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………...p.iii

CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...p.4
2. LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Leadership…………………………………………………………………..…p.5 2. Male’s point of view in leadership ...…………..……………………..………p.8 3. Female’s point of view in leadership………………….……………..………p.10 4. The androgynous style……………………………………………………… p.13 5. Thesis problem: a new style of leadership……………………………… …p.16
3. RESEARCH DESIGN 1. Conceptual assumption..………………………………………………..……p.17 2. Hypothesis and Variables……………………………………………………p.18 1. Research Questions 2. Dependent & Independent Variables 3. Participants……………………………………………………………….….p.19 4. Instruments…………………………………………………………………..p.19 5. Expected Results………………………………………………………….….p.20 6. Procedure………………………………………………………………….…p.21 7. Study limitations……………………………………….. …………………...p.22

4. WHAT THE NUMBERS TELL US 1. Analysis- Tests used……………………………………..…………… ……p.23 2. Sampling Description………………………………………………………p.23 3. Types of leadership style: Feminine? Masculine? Neutral?……..………p.24 1. Paired samples correlations: current vs. ideal 2. Paired samples correlations: yourself ideal vs. boss ideal

4. Correlations in the rating of the various type of characteristics..…..….p.27 5. Comparisons of participants’ rating on the three categories of characteristics – masculine, feminine, and